Truly Happy
by JMolover13
Summary: Post-curse. Snow is with Charming, but tells Emma of how Red was the one she truly loved. And how Snow regrets letting Red go. Emma takes her mother's advice and tries to fix things between herself and Regina. Tumblr prompt.


They were in Storybrooke. Henry had gone to a sleepover and they had had the house to themselves for once.

Emma was curled up into Regina's side after a blissful session of lovemaking. They were just staring into each other's eyes, reading each other's thoughts and kissing… Oh how the kissing made them both melt into each other more. They actually spent most of their alone time talking… and it really didn't matter what they were talking about, what mattered was that they were in love and they were laughing and having an all around naked good time together… and really, they were only naked because they were finally enjoying the miniscule amount of privacy they were granted. They told jokes and stories; they spent the entire time in bed and it was so… perfect…

~0~0~0~0~0~

That was the only good dream she had had in three years, and really, it was a memory… She didn't even have a thriving imagination anymore because of this…

They had been back in Fairytale Land for just over a decade now, Henry was off at college and hadn't been around thank gods. The curse seemed like a dream to literally everyone… even the creator and the castor of the curse. Ironically from the end of the curse they both found their happily ever afters too… or at least they did allegedly. Rumple was fine… he and Belle were as blissful as ever… It was Regina that seemed to have all the problems.

Of course who wouldn't have problems whilst being in love with Emma Swan… the woman was a complete nightmare. Refused to dress to the standards that a princess should. She always opted for men's trousers and coats. She was hardly a woman at all… that is until you took in that main she was so adamant to keep up with, and those eyes and lashes… and her perfect apple cheeks… And then as you let your eyes travel south, you found swells where men had none… and of course… as you let your eyes travel over her even more you found that ass in those pants and Regina could never resist her… Which brought her back to her point… Emma Swan was a nightmare.

It wasn't their physical relationship that had a problem… it was their lack of connecting anywhere else but the bedroom that bothered Regina. If they weren't in bed together they weren't in sync… they didn't like being around each other… the couldn't tolerate each other. And every time Regina tried to get Emma to look at her in any other light than lust, she found that Emma had broken the bulbs before they could shine on her.

It was with a heavy heart that Regina sat up in their bed early one morning. She had been awake the whole night… She hadn't been able to enjoy any of Emma's…offerings and told the woman that she was only tired. Grumpily, Emma huffed and rolled to the other end of their huge ass bed. Her back was bare as she leaned forward to retrieve her dressing robe from the floor. She knew Emma was up as well… she also knew that she had no other opportunity but right then and there to get it over with.

She took in a deep breath and sighed it out, "I'm leaving." She turned her head to the side so Emma… her wife… her soon to be ex-wife could see only her profile.

"Fine." Emma didn't care what she did. She didn't get any the night before and she was pissed.

"Emma…" Regina swallowed hard and shook her head.

"Yes, Regina?" She sighed out in annoyance, already turning the other way to go back to sleep.

"I don't mean I'm leaving for the morning… I'm leaving." She said once more, "I'm leaving the castle. Leaving this marriage. Leaving you. I can't…" She swallowed hard, "I can't be in a relationship that is only sex. You showed me how much brighter everything is while in love… and lately you've shown me how grey everything truly is… I need to see color again, Emma… And I can't seem to find it anymore with you…"

~0~0~0~0~0~

Emma had stayed in bed for another hour before she got up. She went to the stables and rode her favorite black horse, Obsidian, for a long while. She loved riding; it was the only—well not the only, but one of the only things she liked about this world. She rode until the middle of the afternoon before she went back. She tried to think it all through, but she could never keep her thoughts for very long, she could never digest what had happened that morning.

It wasn't until she was walking back to her corridor that her mother stopped her, "Emma dear, there you are… I've been looking for you everywhere."

Emma turned and looked at the queen, her mother as she effortlessly glided toward her. She popped her thumbs as she answered, "I was out riding…"

"I know. I told the guards to tell me the minute you and Obsidian came home." She reached her hand out to the blonde version of herself, "Come… let's chat."

"Chat?" Emma mimicked her mother's tone as she was dragged down the hallway, "About what?"

"Your marriage." Snow said as soon as they entered her private study. She waved off the guards before Emma could react to what she said, so the room was totally private, "Or lack thereof…" the long-haired brunette crossed her arms and raised a scolding eyebrow as she leaned again the desk.

Emma blinked a few times, "My lack of marriage? What are you talking ab—?"

"You can't hide it from me, Emma… She already told me." Snow stood up and walked to the end of the desk as she traced it with her fingers, "She's already gone." She spoke quietly.

Emma scoffed, "Pff! Yeah well, good riddance. It doesn't matter anyway." She rolled her eyes, "It was over already… it's been over for a while." She shrugged then looked at her mother, "Can I go now?" She just her jaw to the side and blinked more than she should have.

"No." Snow walked to the couch in the room then patted the other end for her daughter to come sit next to her. She stared at her a little bit, "I know more about being in a relationship with a fiery, sultry brunette than you may think…"

Emma's ass didn't hit the couch at all, "Are you saying that you and Reg—"

"OH Good LORD no!" Snow stopped her daughter before she could even finish.

Emma sat back down, "Good… Cause I was like…" She gestured with her hands, "And it would have been…" She used her face as well this time to show her that it would have been gross, "And that would have meant that you would have known what it's like to be with a woman…" She rolled her eyes.

"I do know what it's like to be with a woman… my fiery, sultry brunette was also very curvy… and all woman." Snow obviously went far off in a memory, and even though it kind of grossed her out to know this about her mother, it was intriguing as well because she had never seen this side of her before, "And sometimes a wolf." She said as she came to.

Emma's jaw dropped, "You mean… you and Ruby?" Emma asked.

"Emma… it's been a decade… Her name is Red."

"She lets me call her Ruby."

"Her name is Red." Her mother said sternly.

Emma raised her hands in defeat, "Sorry."

"No. I'm sorry…" She rolled her eyes, "Yes… Red and I were once… we were very much in love…" She said as she drifted off into another memory.

~0~0~0~0~0~

They were in Snow's latest hideout. Red had come for a sleepover and they had had a place to themselves for once.

Snow was curled up into Red's side after a blissful session of lovemaking. They were just staring into each other's eyes, reading each other's thoughts and kissing… Oh how the kissing made them both melt into each other more. They actually spent most of their alone time talking… and it really didn't matter what they were talking about, what mattered was that they were in love and they were laughing and having an all around naked good time together… and really, they were only naked because they were finally enjoying the miniscule amount of privacy they were granted. They told jokes and stories; they spent the entire time in bed and it was so… perfect…

~0~0~0~0~0~

Snow shook out of it again, "She was my everything. We spent every possible moment we could together. We taught each other things and we made each other laugh… But above all else… We had this… this connection! You know?" Snow sat forward as she tightened her interlocked fingers together so tight that her knuckles were white and her hands were shaking, and then she release them and dropped them on the couch to scooted back. She looked up at her daughter, "That connection… I saw it with you and Regina… it's the only reason I ever forgave her." She said as she stared into her eyes. "I knew she finally felt it again… finally felt that intensity that it was like to be with the one person you knew…." She sucked in a ragged breath as five tears made their way from her eyes, "You _knew_ that you were supposed to be with… She had finally fond that one person that… that one soul. And it was you…" She took in another breath, "You had that look in your eyes too…"

"Mom…" Emma started in, hating to see her mother cry, but Snow continued.

"No. Now listen to me, gods damn it!" She wiped her eyes, "I may not have my true love… But that doesn't mean I don't love your father either. He's a good man, a great and charming man, but…"

"He's not Red…" Emma supplied.

"And that is not his fault. We fought like hell for each other, your father and I. We knew that we had something special… but…" She trailed off again as she sucked in air like she was taking her last breaths, "Red will always be my true love that I don't deserve…" She looked at her daughter square in the eyeballs, "I didn't ever fight for her once… Don't make my mistakes. Don't not fight for her because of your pride. You can do so easily the thing I couldn't ever gain the courage for… You can walk with her in your arms and not care about the looks or fear them or anything as silly and stupid… so don't fucking throw this away because you've been a complete ass for the past three years." Snow stood up and towered over her daughter as she sat stalk still on the couch, "She is your wife. You love her. Let her know that and she will come back."

Emma stayed there for a minute slack-jawed. She didn't move until the loud thud of the door closing brought her out of her senses. She sat there a moment longer debating on where Regina could have possibly gone before she knew the exact place. She had to have known about Red and Snow, she had always dropped hints that Emma had refused to pick up on… The only other person that knows what it's like to break up with a White Princess is Red.

She rushed into the stables, "Obsidian!" She yelled.

The horse trotted to the edge of his stall to see why his master was calling his name. He gave her an expectant whinny when she got to the stall.

"We have to go to Red's." She said as she started gathering his gear.

He stamped his foot and shook his head, 'pff'ing at her.

"Obsidian…" She gave him a raised brow that always made the horse cower and give in.

He whinnied a whine as if asking, "But why do we have to go there?"

"Because Regina's there…" Emma responded patiently like she was answering her tenth 'Why?' from a two-year-old.

He stopped moving and looked at her with a sigh.

"You remember Regina… She gives you lots of apples and treats and makes you fat… You luuuve Regina." She said as she rubbed his nose and his neck. He gave two stomps from his hind legs, letting her know that he loved being pet too, "Listen to me, Obs…" She rested her nose against his, "I've been a real fuck up with her for a good three, probably four years now… She's leaving unless I can get to her and convince her not to… Now, she's at Red's and I need to get there as fast as possible… I know your tired, but I'll let you eat all the apples Regina wants to magically dish you when you see each other again, and I'll spoil you too… but we gotta get to her first, otherwise I'm just an ass with a horse…" She sighed and kissed him between his eyes, "You understand."

He whinnied impossibly loud for a horse, nodded his head and stomped all his feet at different intervals.

"I'm going to take that as a resounding yes…" Emma grinned at him as he patiently waited for her to get him ready to ride. Then, after she walked him out of the stall and hopped on his back he took off as fast as he could… he did love the lady that gave him treats when his blonde master wasn't looking… and he knew that his blonde master loved the lady that gave him treats… she couldn't leave them.

They reached Red's and Granny's in record time… Emma felt as though she were screaming through half of the trip, but she supposed it served her right. As Obsidian came to a halt, which was about two feet from the door, and he had been sliding in a dog's sitting position for thirty feet before that, Emma thought she really was going to die. As she opened her eyes and felt her surroundings, jaw-dropped as she could touch the side of the main lodging facility. She then leaned forward, still slack-jawed and gave the horse a stroke or two on his neck.

Obsidian started getting antsy again and started bucking, "Okay! OKAY!" Emma yelled for him to stop so she could get off of him and take him to the stables, "Let's go around back, alright?" After she got him in a stall and with some of the food that he loved, she walked back around to the main lodging cabin and walked inside after knocking.

Red and Granny were the only two up, "Emma." Red smiled, "What a surprise." She did good masking how surprised she actually was, and she did horrible at not indicating what cabin Regina was staying in as she looked out the window to the closest cabin to theirs.

"Hi." Emma smiled, "I hope it's okay that I put Obsidian in the stables and gave him some food…. I'll pay for it all of course."

"Of course." Red waved it off, "Don't worry about it, Em… what are you doing here?"

"Where is she?" Emma asked even though she already knew.

"Where is who?"

"Ruby…" Emma gave her a pleading look. She bit her lip and tried to swallow the sudden lump in her throat, "Where is she?"

"She doesn't want to see you Em…"

"Ruby… either take me to her, or I'll find her myself."

"Emma… She's gone. You don't get to change your mind once the leaving is already done."

"I haven't changed it!" Emma yelled, "I have always and will always be in love with her, no matter my actions!" She got dangerously close, "It's a thing I guess I picked up from my mother… we fall in true love once for life then make stupid mistakes until they leave… But I am not letting her go like my mom did… I will not do that to Regina… I'm sorry my mom hurt you Rubes, I really am… don't let me hurt her like she hurt you… let me fix it. I need a chance to fix it!"

Red had let her tears fall at the first mention of Snow. She put on her cloak and grabbed a lantern, "Follow me." She said.

Red brought her to the small cabin just on the opposite side of Red and Granny's cabin. It was still lit from the fire inside. She knocked on the door, "Regina?" She called.

A few footfalls and a door click later, Regina was revealed. She would have looked worse for wear to probably anyone that had ever seen her before that day… she didn't even look so bad when she was once dying… But to Emma… it was like they were starting all over again… She was the most beautiful person she has and will ever see in her life. Emma immediately grabbed her and kissed her hard before Regina could react to her presence.

Regina felt herself react to the kiss… and she hated herself when she felt her hands tangle in Emma's mane of blonde. She heard Red's feet as they stepped down the steps slowly and walk back to her own cabin. As that door shut, she came to her senses. She pushed Emma away from her, "What the hell are you doing?"

Emma stood before her as strong as she possibly could, "I am kissing my wife… the woman I love." That was all she was able to give herself as her strength wore out and she fell to her knees, "You can't leave. I will do everything I can to never hurt you again."

Regina looked up, away from her wife, who had taken to wrapping her arms around Regina's middle.

"I will make up for everything I swear it. We don't even have to have sex, but please don't leave me… You are my everything… I don't know why I'm such an ass-bitch-face but I am!" She nuzzled into her stomach as she released a hot breath. She felt Regina's hands tangle in her hair once more, "Baby I love you more than anything… I won't give up ever again, I swear it. Please. I'll do anything."

Regina let her tears fall on Emma's head. She ran her hands over her hair for a few minutes. As soon as Emma said, 'my wife' and 'the woman I love' she knew that someone or something finally got to her. She knew that things really were going to change. And when she offered no sex until Regina saw fit, she knew just how desperate and completely serious she was for her. Never before would she have given in so easily. Never before would she have forgiven so easily… but with Emma… with the woman she loved… it was easy.

She lifted Emma's face to she could see it, "We are never having sex again." Regina said seriously.

"Okay." Emma nodded and kissed her stomach, "Never?" She pulled back and looked up at Regina whose face was stern. She looked back at her stomach and kissed it again, "Okay." She nodded once more.

Regina's eyes filled once more as Emma pulled her tighter after the knowledge of no sex. She pulled her wife to stand, "But you can make love to me anytime you please." She spoke quietly. She let the words soak into Emma's mind as the blonde tried to wrap her head around what the woman had just told her.

Emma's face brightened into that smile that got her anything she wanted. She leaned in and kissed her, "I'm gonna make love to you right now… you know I'm not good with words…" She paused as they shuffled inside the cabin, "But I will do my damndest from now on with them… I promise." She kissed her wife, "I am so in love with you…" She kissed her again as Regina led them to the bedroom and began shedding their clothes, "It's like I've been in a coma for the past three years…. It's like this part of me was shut off… I could see what I was doing, but I couldn't stop it…" Another few kisses, "But I'm awake now… and I ain't fucking up like that again… slap me back to my senses, please babe…" She kissed her again as they fell on the bed.

"Oh no worries… we're not good at communicating our feelings. We both grew up seeing them as weakness… we have to remember that they aren't weakness, Darling… they're power." She kissed her wife once more as they rolled over once or twice. They made love like it was a decade prior. They talked like it was fifteen years before and looked at each other with the same passion of twenty years before. They had both longed for this once more, and now that it was back, neither was going to let it go again.

The next morning, Regina rolled over checking the time. She knew there was a reason she was hungry… it was noon and she hadn't eaten for two days. Just as she was about to move to get out of bed, she felt kisses attack her lower back and travel all the way up to her neck. She fell into the bed more to let this happen with a blissful smile on her face.

"Just where do you think you're going?"

"I need nourishment, dear."

"Food?" Emma's tone was filled with want as well.

"Food." Regina nodded.

"Mm… proceed." She said before she changed her mind and didn't let her go, "Can't you zap us something? Oh like from back home?" Emma asked.

"And just what from back home would you like?" Regina asked as she leaned against the head of the bed with her wife at her side, "Mmmm… Breakfast?" Emma asked.

"It's noon you know?"

"Breakfast?" She asked again in the same tone.

Regina grinned and kissed Emma's cheek before Emma did the same to her. She waved her hand and all of Emma's favorite breakfast foods from Storybrooke appeared before them.

~0~0~0~0~0~

After six days of staying naked in the cabin, five visits to Obsidian for all the treats he pleased, four awkward encounters with passers by (including Red and Granny) catching the two on the way back to the cabin, three whines from Emma, two stern looks from Regina and a heavy sigh, Emma and Regina were making their way to the stables to go back.

It was as they were leaving, Obsidian walking lazily that Red stopped them, "Emma!" She called.

"Yeah?"

"Were you serious?" She asked.

"When?" Emma was lost.

"When you said that you White Princesses only fall in true love once… were you serious?"

Emma looked at the ground, "Red…"

"Were. You. Serious?" Red didn't let her say what she knew she was going to say…that it was wrong and blah, blah, blah.

Emma nodded, "Yeah…"

"That's all I needed to know." She whispered out as she walked back to the cabin.

~0~0~0~0~0~

A week later, Emma caught wind that Red had come for a visit. She ran to the garden porch… where she was told the Queen and Red were. She stayed hidden watching as they talked. Both of them were as professional as could be… they had been doing this for only God… err… gods knew how long. She wished it wasn't so hard for them. She wished they could be together somehow. She felt a hand on her shoulder and knew right away it wasn't Regina.

She whipped around to find her father, "Let them be." He spoke quietly, "This is all they get anymore."

"All they get…? What are you talking about, Dad?"

"I know your mother told you about them… You didn't think I didn't know did you?" He grinned as he pulled her from Emma's hiding spot, "We'd had about five too many fights about Red when your mother finally told me she was in love with two different people. It was hard at first, but I realized that I'd rather have half of your mother than nothing at all… So we stayed together." He was talking quietly as they were walking down the hall, "And of course after Thomas disappeared and Cinderella was on her own, I grew to know how she felt…" He coughed, "And now that the curse is broken and Thomas has passed… everything is as it was before…"

Emma was having a hard time processing this, "So let me get this straight… you would both be happier with other people, but you're staying together because…?"

"We have a kingdom to run… appearances to keep up…"

"Well… why don't you guys step down let me and Regina step up… she's done it once, I'm sure if she did everything but opposite, we'd be flourishing throughout the lands…. Then you guys would only have to keep up appearances sort of… a ball here a gala there… you could be with Cinderella and mom could be with Red…"

"My wife makes an excellent point, your majesty…" Regina said as she walked down the hall.

"I suppose that's true, but it would never work."

"Why isn't divorce legal in Fairytale Land?" Emma turned to Regina.

"It goes by kingdom, darling…" Regina kissed her wife.

"Then I say that's our first act when we become queens…" Emma kissed her back then turned to her father, "Dad… don't you see… everyone gets what they want if you do this… Regina can run a kingdom in her sleep, we all know that… Think about it and talk it over with mom…" She said as she pulled away from the other two and went to check on her mother and Red.

She looked out and saw them hold hands as discreetly as possible. She bit her lip and shook her head. Before she walked off to wish and pray for a happy ending.

~0~0~0~0~0~

Three months after Emma's suggestion she found herself being crowned queen along side her wife. Henry had come home from his schooling for the ceremony. He had grown up so fast he was hardly recognized as he sat alongside his mothers. He had hoped and prayed and wished every night after he left that they would work it out… looks like it came true.

Four years after this, James was declared King with Cinderella as his Queen. He let her run the show of course, for she had been running it for a good twelve years. He finally understood completely was his daughter was making him do… he understood true love.

Queen Snow had retired from the castle to Red's cabins. She came when needed, but Regina and Emma ran the kingdom like a well-oiled machine. She was never going to be needed.

They all gathered for holidays. All of them one big truly happy—finally!—family.


End file.
